Qinon followed his newfound companions through the hills. They walked for almost two hours. While they walked, each of the members of the group introduced themselves to Qinon, and then he introduced himself to them.

The Grer's name was Natilus. He was the son of an Apothecary, though his mom had actually been the working hand behind the shop, and had left at the age of eighteen to travel the world. He had found his special armor in a tomb-robbery and always wore it, because he claimed that it had magical powers and could protect him from almost anything.

The Minotaur was called Tranktr. Because nobody could pronounce this, however, the others called him Taur. He was astonishingly talkative for a Minotaur and explained that he was of royal heritage. He did not mention of which nationality he was and from which kingdom, but Qinon assumed that it was one of those small island kingdoms off the north coast of Mythron that had won it's independence some time ago and that everybody had forgotten now.

The Orc, Shcrazcss, was the strangest of all of them: unlike the other two, he was not the man to storm into a battle. instead, he would stand back and work mysterious magic. Upon farther inquiry, he revealed that he used combinations of ground roots, chemicals, different other plant components and sometimes sand, smoke, rock powder of animal fluids such as blood to make strange devices that exploded a few seconds after being lit. he also had a variety of powders that, when breathed, would slow, internally would, or mentally confuse somebody, which was always useful when the group was outnumbered. the Orc was also the leader of the group.
Because Shcrazcss stubbornly refused to be called a nickname, he had Qinon repeat the Orc's name for half an hour until he got it right.

After those two hours, the group reached a hut in the midst of the wilderness. It was high up, but not high enough for snow. They all entered.

While Taur and Natilus went about their own business, Shcrazcss jumped on the table and said to Qinon: "This is where we plan, plot and eat on rainy days. Upstairs are the bunks, which is where we sleep. On sunny or only drizzly days, we eat outside."

Qinon listened, but was distracted by all the ornaments around the room: strange tapestries, two pennants in the corners, four chairs stacked in another corner, a dagger in an alcove, a ladder, an animal's skull on top of a bookshelf, and a golden torch that seemed to have been burning throughout the group's absence but looked as though it had just been lit.
"You are looking at a not too big, but very valuable collection of items." Shcrazcss said to Qinon. "Although some of these objects are only of personal value to us, such as the dagger, which belonged to the archer before you. He used to be the leader… He was a very good archer, one of the best in all of Mythron. I'm glad we have found a worthy replacement…"
Then, in a hammier tone, he said: "Come, I'll show you upstairs."

So they climbed up the ladder to inspect the top floor.

"This is the bunk room. Very plain, as you see. The bunk to the left of the opening is yours."
"Is that all there is to this room? Or is there something else?" Qinon asked.
"Look behind the double-bed" Shcrazcss said.

Qinon looked, and inhaled sharply: In front of him lay riches unlike ones he had ever seen before. Sure, some of them were just gold and silver coins. There were also golden candle-holders and bars of normal silver. But two things stood out: A chunk of pure gold that was bigger than one's foot, and a finely cut and beautifully polished diamond.
"What are you going to do with all of this?" Qinon asked.
"Almost anyone is prone to bribery. Only the very purest of all people will be able to resist that diamond, for example. It might save our lives one day. And if we don't need it to save our lives, who knows what else it could be useful for? The possibilities are endless. We are almost at the point where we can finance a small army or make a decently sized fortress."
"Hmm…" Qinon said.

a little while later, the group met at the table to discuss their next plan.
"We have not been yeti hunting in a long time." Natilus said.
"What about the black lotus?" Shcrazcss asked. "Aren't you interested in them? Don't you feel like you need a challenge, and that these are the perfect people for one?"
"I vote for the yeti hunt", Taur said. "It will help s learn to work together with our new team member."
Qinon agreed. It didn't really matter to him, what they did next. He was just happy that he had found friends.

I really like this build for several reasons: One, the decorations in the main room are just awesome. And two, I worked a little with depth this time, making the floor lower inside the house than the ground outside and having the bottom part of the house be carved out of the stone ground. I also love how my roof technique is developing, and how the gable and the vines turned out (sorry for not letting you see those very clearly. I had a picture, but it was so bad that I decided it was better not to show the picture).

Hope you liked it!!!

PS: You don't have to read too carefully to know what my next LoM moc is going to be…)